clown girl by Monica Drake

Ahh, the rustic splendor of Baloneytown. Where clowns struggle and scrape to make a living amidst squalor and illicit drug deals. Many of them yearn to produce high art, while most slip into an existence of alcoholism, drug dependency, and prostitution. Enter Sniffles, our protagonist. She's a sad sack of a clown who's not having the best of luck. Her clown paramour Rex Galore has traveled (on money borrowed from her) to San Francisco to try to make it into clown college. She's just had a miscarriage, and even worse - she's lost her rubber chicken!

Drake embues Sniffles with a great deal of pathos, and she saves the story. Most of these scenarios, I'd stop reading about thirty pages in because of all of the misery, emotional angst, and broken-heart-tragedy of the story. When it's done poorly, it reads like a Bizarro-version of Sex in the City (which I hate enough in the normal universe). With Drake, the story absolutely soars. You can't help but feel for Sniffles as she makes mistake after mistake, trying to get her act together, and working like Hell to make something of herself.

The unique setting and likeable characters only add to the joy of the story, as a clown redeems herself and discovers that there's more to life than rubber chickens and fire juggling. More even than finding true love. Sniffles is on a quest to accept herself, and she discovers that everyone's wearing a costume, and that all the world's a stage - but does she (or can she) fit?

Are YOU Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace

The genesis of many "Stupid Boy Bets" for Gorman and Wallace is found here. They become flatmates near London, and one night while drinking get into a discussion about namesakes. Dave says there are surely loads of Dave Gormans in the world. Danny disagrees. To prove his point, Dave whisks them away from a bar in the wee hours of the morning for a train ride to East Fife to meet a soccer coach also named Dave Gorman. They accomplish this (slightly hungover and much worse for the wear), and the bet is born.
They agree upon a number: 54 Gormans, one for each card in a deck plus 2 jokers. What follows is an odd odyssey that spans the globe, as Dave, ever dogged and determined to prove Danny wrong, drags his roommate behind him to meet and be photographed with as many Dave Gormen (he coins the plural) as possible.
The sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing is half the fun. Their journey is not really one of personal discovery, more of a test of the limits of friendship. When the quest begins, Danny will do anything to end it quickly. He wants Dave to surrender. Yet when Dave is at his most desperate, it is always Danny who comes to the rescue, cheers him on, keeps him going.
The bet ends in an unconventional manner, but led to a TV show for Gorman. From here, they've each gone on to crazier things (see Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure and Wallace's Join Me! and Yes Man).
They are an inspiration. Even the stupidest of passions deserves to be seen through to the end.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

You've probably read a million reviews of the book, so I'll keep this short. It was a pitch-perfect ending to an amazing story. The Boy Who Lived faced off against He Who Must Not Be Named in an epic showdown. Wars were fought. Many died. Heroes new and old rose to face the challenge.

For me, the journey of Harry Potter has been amazing in watching the characters grow older. There is a sense of maturity to them, as they are burdened with more challenges than anyone their age should have to face. Rowling does a fine job of showing the humanity of her characters first and foremost, and supporting it with the magical world she's created. The Potter books are sure to be debated and dissected through the years, but it seems a sure bet that they will hold up. The saga is one that can be shared with children and grandchildren to come, but also one that begs to be revisited by adults looking for a great example of storytelling.

What is the What by Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng

Sudan is a nation mired in war, and its people seem destined to suffer. Valentino Achak Deng is a survivor of the civil wars, one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" who trekked 1,000 miles to escape his country and grew up in a refugee camp. Eggers combines elements of Deng's story with some fictional narrative to create what is possibly the most compelling book I've ever read.

It's easy to get buried under the landslide of hard luck that comes Deng's way, from his village being leveled to his incredibly painful exodus across Sudan, losing his family, losing his friends, and constantly fighting off hunger and disease. The format of the novel is incredible, echoing Deng's message throughout: somebody please listen to me. Hear me. We begin in the present in America, where Deng has been relocated for safety. He becomes the victim of a home invasion robbery, where he's beaten and nearly killed while all of his possessions are stolen. The book becomes a prayer from Deng, words spoken in his mind, imagined conversations with his persecutors, his friends, anybody who happens through his life. Somebody hear me. Validate me.

Deng grows up in unimaginable circumstances, bringing us through his passage into adulthood. He sees friends killed by lions on the walk out of Sudan. Groups of boys executed by bombers. Dead bodies, horrific mutilations, and yet, Deng struggles on. It's not all horrible. There are moments of great humor, such as Deng falling in love, and uplifting passages that will make your soul sing.

The title of the book refers to the legend of creation told to Deng by his father. "The What" is something endowed to the Dinka tribe of Sudan by God. It becomes the driving force in the story, yet we never hear it fully explained until the end. Deng keeps talking, to his captors, to the police, to his Christian neighbors downstairs, to hospital orderlies, to patrons of the fitness club where he works. Someone will listen. Someone will hear.

Read this book and be changed forever.